Communication systems operating in a radio frequency (RF) spectrum often deploy modulation techniques (e.g., frequency modulation, amplitude modulation, I/Q modulation, and others) for modulating signals or data streams (in case of in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) modulation, the signals may typically refer to as in-phase “I” component and quadrature “Q” component) onto a common carrier. In practical communication systems, virtually all analog components that may be used in communication devices to perform basic signal processing functions such as signal generation, mixing, filtering, and others are imperfect and are often mismatched. Unavoidable tolerances in the manufacturing process for electronic devices lead to imperfections that may introduce unequal amount of distortion and error in the processing of I/Q signals. I/Q imbalances may manifest themselves as a gain and phase imbalance in the I/Q branches or chains (formed by the imperfect or mismatched components), thereby generating deviations from the desired 90° phase shift and the desired equal gain in the I/Q branches.
Several techniques such as a training-based estimation technique and a blind (or non-reference signal based) estimation technique may be used to mitigate the effects of I/Q imbalances in a communication device. These techniques typically estimate the I/Q gain and phase imbalance parameters to digitally compensate for the error. However, many of the techniques may place undesirable restrictions or limitations on the communication systems such as a need to inject a known calibration (or pilot or reference) signal into the receiver and similar others.